The former girlfriend of Health Minister Tony Abbott today
denied misleading him for 27 years over the son he thought he had
fathered.

"No, no, not at all," Kathy Donnelly told A Current
Affair when asked if she had misled Mr Abbott over the
paternity of Daniel O'Connor, the son they thought they shared.

Ms Donnelly said Mr O'Connor's father was a man named Bill, who
had been a fellow art student 27 years ago.

She said the pair shared a flat with other art students and had
a one-night stand, but they used contraception.

"... we were intimate and the next morning we both got up and
said, 'Oh God'. We were good friends, flatmates and realised that
was just not something to be repeated and it never was," she
said.

Mr O'Connor tracked down Ms Donnelly last year and was told Mr
Abbott was his father.

But DNA tests have now revealed that another man fathered the
Canberra press gallery sound technician.

Ms Donnelly said she went into shock when she was contacted by
Bill at the height of the publicity about Mr Abbott being revealed
as Mr O'Connor's father.

"He said he's [Daniel's] exactly the same as my 19-year-old son,
he looks the same. He said: 'Is he quiet and laid back?' I thought
"Yes, yes he is,' " she said.

"I said obviously we do a DNA test of some kind."

Bill, who has two other children - a son and daughter - did not
want to go public because his family was only learning the news as
it broke in the media, she said.

Ms Donnelly said Mr Abbott was the love of her life at the time,
but she knew the pair would never marry and denied the pregnancy
was a ploy to change that.

"I knew pretty well the love of my life wasn't going to marry
me, that was pretty clear in the beginning," she said.

"I mean Tony and I discussed marriage but it was very obvious
even before the discussion that that wasn't going to happen."

She said she was saddened to learn Mr Abbott was not her son's
father.

"He [Mr Abbott] said to me, 'Kath I'm really sorry, it's bad
news', because we both wanted it. That's not to say that Bill is
not a terrific person; he is a terrific person, but, in an oddball
kind of way, for 27 years we've been a dysfunctional little
family," she said. "Tony and I and this child that we didn't have,
and two parents that didn't live together that saw each other four
times in those years, though we spoke often."

Ms Donnelly shed a tear as she explained her sadness at the
latest twist in the saga.

"It's so unexpected; we all cared for each other, you know; we
all, this funny mob of the Abbotts, the McDonalds, the Donnellys
and the O'Connors, all we cared about was Daniel," she said.

"Luckily, I spoke to Daniel this morning and he said to me,
'You're still my mum.' But Tony's not still his dad."

Her son had had a baptism of fire from hell, she said.

"For Daniel this is very difficult because it's so public," she
said.

"I think the trifecta that he has pulled is a really tough call
for any young man, the trifecta being adoption, finding your
parents and finding one of them is Tony Abbott and then finding
that it wasn't Tony Abbott.

"As a mother I find that very distressing, no one wants to
inflict ... pain on their children no matter how naive or foolish
and especially tough to be relinquished," she said, breaking
down.

"I only ever want to give Daniel good things and he has had the
baptism of fire from hell."